Press Release: June 26 2007
Pioneering arts festival attracts 1,200
A fledgling Merseyside arts festival
attracted over 1,200 people for a line-up that included
brass bands and Bond girls last week.
The Prescot Festival of Music and the
Arts was in its third year, and took a big gamble when
it increased from four days in 2005 and 2006 to 10 days
in 2007.
We’re a small town and a small
organisation, and we just didn’t know whether people
were going to turn out ten nights in a row,” said
Artistic Director Dr Rob Howard, “but we took a risk and
it paid off. It’s the first time Prescot has tried
anything on this scale. But it couldn’t have been more
successful.”
On the first weekend, a performance of
Faure’s Requiem featured a choir of 85 singers specially
assembled from all over the region. As the weekend went
on, audiences packed in for a programme that mixed the
best of amateur, semi-professional and professional
talent, both local and national.
For many, the highlight was Word of
Honor, a one-woman show presented by Honor Blackman,
the actress who made her name as Pussy Galore in the
1964 James Bond flick Goldfinger. Still looking
as glamorous as ever, the sixties sex symbol held the
audience spellbound as she told the rags-to-riches story
of her illustrious life and career.
The Merseyside Police Band brought the
Festival to a close on Sunday night with a
Last-Night-of-the-Proms-style finale, featuring a
potpourri of classical, jazz and pop favourites,
alongside traditional rousing anthems such as
Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory.
“We’re already busily preparing for the
2008 Fest,” Dr Howard continued. “It’s the Capital of
Culture year for Liverpool, and that will be an exciting
time for anyone involved in local arts in the region.
Watch this space.”
